Raising the stakes on corporate hypocrisy and environmental racism

For more examples of our impact, see our 2020 annual report 

Our findings put a spotlight on the fossil fuel industry's blatant hypocrisy, while showing how it props up systemic racism by financing politicians who block progress towards racial justice. The story has had lasting resonance and impact; it has helped to draw the link between racism and discrimination in the oil and gas industry, and has been utilized in campaigns by our partners to tackle the advertising & PR firms that prop up fossil fuel companies.

Meanwhile, as the US introduced its first bailouts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we revealed how one company – Occidental Petroleum – stood to benefit from pandemic relief following intensive lobbying efforts. This generated national attention on the fossil fuel industry’s influence over political decision-making for their own benefit, at the expense of communities on the frontline of the crisis. Leading US activist and journalist Bill McKibben highlighted the investigation in his New Yorker column as a spotlight on the “stickiness of the industry’s legacy political power”.